This invention relates generally to the field of toothbrush devices and more specifically to a whole mouth toothbrush.
People of all ages and manual dexterity levels need to brush their teeth on a daily basis to keep their teeth clean and help prevent tooth decay. Some people, such as the elderly and the physically challenged, have a hard time holding a traditional toothbrush handle in all the various positions necessary for reaching all the portions of the user's mouth and teeth.
To this end, some inventors have proposed toothbrush designs that can brush all the user's teeth at a single time while the user holds the brush handle in one central position. For example, Terry Solow, in his U.S. Pat. No. 4,224,710 discloses a U shaped toothbrush having bristles that can manually brush all sides of the user's teeth. In a second patent, Benedict Ellison, in his U.S. Pat. No. 5,177,827 discloses a battery powered U shaped toothbrush that attempts to brush all portions of the user's teeth at once.
However there are deficiencies in the prior technology. The Solow design is a manual device that requires the user to move their teeth up and down to brush them. This type of action does not provide the most effective brushing technique. The Ellison patent describes a motorized toothbrush where a number of long brushes are bent into partial U shapes and rotated. Although this design might provide adequate cleaning power, it is questionable whether this design can actually be put into practice since it is requiring the brushes to both bend and rotate at the same time.